"The Ballad of Reading Gaol," sung as a ballad.


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Artist/Composer: Oscar Wilde
Date: 2009-03-24
Keywords: ballad; poetry; a cappella

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States

Notes

TEXT

Prisoner C.3.3, known outside of prison as Oscar Wilde, wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Why not take the title on its face, and sing the poem as a ballad?

TUNE

I took the tune from "Derwentwater's Farewell," and mangled it to fit Wilde's 6-line stanzas instead of the 8 lines of the original tune. I pretty much remembered the tune from Louis Killen's recording on "Old Songs, Old Friends," Front Hall Records FHR-012, Voorheesville, NY, 1978. I have seen it called "Child 208," but that appears to be a completely different ballad about the same Lord Derwentwater. Louis Killen attributes the work to Robert Surtees, who apparently wrote the poem in 1807, and sent it to Walter Scott in the guise of a traditional ballad. I have seen the tune identified as "My Dear and Only Love, Take Heed," found in John Gamble's Commonplace Book from 1659, but I haven't been able to verify that it is the same tune that I heard on Louis Killen's recording.

PERFORMANCE

Song and drone sung by Michael J. O'Donnell.

RECORDING AND PRODUCTION

I recorded and mixed Part I on 2009 March 25, Part II on 2009 August 14, and I intend to continue with Parts III-VI.

Being totally naive about studio technique, I winged it. I recorded on an Edirol R-09 portable digital recorder at 44.1 KHz, 24-bit samples, in stereo. I used Core Sound CSB miniature microphones, clipped to a music folder on a stand with about 14 inches separation, and I stood one step away from the stand. I sang each Part in a single take (after several rejects).

For the drone, I sang a few Fs, lowered them an octave by resampling at half speed, and then created an ad hoc chorus by repeating and overdubbing copies of one or a few of the notes (I forgot how many). The drone has been sitting around in my files since 29 March, 2008. I used Audacity's pitch shifting tool to create drones on other notes (B flat for Part II). I aimed for just intervals with simple rational frequency ratios: 3/2, 4/3, 5/4, 6/5. I don't know how the calculations are done in Audacity, so I'm not sure how accurate the results are. For the perfect fourth and fifth (B flat and C), I can't hear any difference from the equal tempered intervals. For the major and minor thirds, I think I hear a difference.

I edited with Audacity 1.3.5-beta, and mixed down to 44.1 KHz 16-bit stereo. I did nothing but crop the beginning and end, scale the amplitudes, and pan the song and drone to different stereo locations.

I will gladly provide raw recordings and Audacity aup source for anyone who wants to remix.

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